I've been on a bit of a Kiron kick for a while, and have been looking for an affordable copy of the 105/2.8 Macro; the search pulled up a copy of the 70-150/4 mislabeled as the 28-105 Macro; the seller wanted $15 for it bundled with a Yashica ML 50/2, so I figured there wasn't anything to lose. Got it in, and realized my mistake; this is actually the same lens Vivitar sold as the 70-150/3.8 Macro, and I already had a copy. <sheepish look> Still, at least I could now see what the Kiron-label version was like...
It does feel more like some other Kirons I have - the 35-135 Macro and 80-200 Macro in particular - in cosmetics as well as build quality, though thankfully it's much smaller and lighter than either one. Since the Yashica had obvious dirt/fungus, I wasn't going to be surprised if the Kiron had some issues hard to spot in the listing photos; thankfully, no fungus, but there was a spot of coating damage on the front element and dark haze rings around the circumference of several elements. How bad did that affect the pics?
Well, no denying the contrast was low, and there was a lot of veiling flare:
Lumix S5, Kiron 70-150/4 - SOOC
I've shot that shelf several times with multiple cameras and lenses, and this was by far the worst result I've experienced, with any lens! But the contrast could be boosted in post, and the results weren't bad:
Pretty darn good, in fact!
Like the bokeh and color:
Pretty good sharpness:
Passed the bare branch test:
...though you can definitely see the veiling flare here!
Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. I do think it's got some value apart from its Vivitar sibling; the colors in particular remind me more of my other Kiron zooms than what I got from the Vivitar, so there may be some difference in coatings. (Although that could just be I didn't shoot many heavily-saturated subjects with the Vivitar.) Not sure how much of the contrast/flaring issues are the haze, and how much native to the lens. Given the price, it might be worth using it as practice for cleaning/disassembling Kiron zooms; if I break it, I haven't lost much.
In any case, I do recommend it, as long as you're willing to deal with the potential contrast/flare. Colors can be very nice once you get contrast where it should be. It's pretty small and light for its focal range, especially considering the usual Kiron build (i.e. suitable for use as a bludgeon).